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Chap...h.... Copyright No.. 
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 

CHOICE OF A COLLEGE 

FOR A BOY 



CHARLES FRANKLIN THWING, D.D., LL.D. 

Pjbesident of Westerx Reserve U:niversity A>rD 
Adelbert College, Cleveland, Ohio 



New York : 46 East Foubteexth Street 

THOMAS Y. CKOWELL & COMPAXY 

Boston : 100 Purchase Street 



1 






357 



Copyright, 1899, 
By Thomas Y. Ceowell & Company. 



'i iJ vi' 



2C:^jVED. 




C. J. Pktees & Son, Typogeaphees, 
Boston. 






THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE 

FOR A BOY. 

Parents too often choose a college for a son without 
special thought or knowledge. To many people a col- 
lege is a college, as a spade is a spade. But the slightest 
reflection, or the most superficial knowledge, is sufficient 
to produce the conviction that colleges differ as funda- 
mentally as any other products of human skill. Certain 
institutions that bear the name of college advance the 
student to no higher stage of learning or culture than 
other colleges require for admission to their freshman 
class. 

It is also evident that too many parents do not select 
a college with special reference to the conditions or the 
needs of the son who is going to college. It is often 
thought that a college good for one boy must be good for 
all boys. The truth is not that the college which is one 
boy's meat is another boy's poison, but the truth is that 
a college good for one boy may be something less than 
good or even something more than good for another boy. 

Before beginning the discussion of the elements that 
should constitute the choice of a college, it is not unfit- 
ting for me to say it is always to be understood that to 
the parent selecting a college for a child the college is a 
tool and not a product. It is an agent and not a result. 
It represents a certain collection of men who are en- 
gaged m the work of teaching students, and it also rep- 

3 



4 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

resents a certain number of books and a certain amount 
of apparatus which, are the conditions or the tools which 
the teaching force uses in the accomplishment of its 
purposes. The college is so constantly and so firmly 
regarded as a thing good in itself that one should be put 
on his guard against thinking of the college as other 
than an agency for securing certain results. 

CITY OR COUNTRY? 

One of the first questions which a parent considers -in 
selecting a college for his boy relates to its location. 
Nearly all the colleges in the United States are, like the 
Jerusalem of David, beautiful for situation. In fact, 
colleges have usually been planted in certain spots be- 
cause of the beauty of the proposed location. It is also 
evident that to the natural beauty of the location their 
presence makes additions. The situation is usually one 
of healthfulness. But the special question that the 
parent has to answer is the question whether he shall 
send his boy to the college in the country or to the col- 
lege in the city. About four-fifths of all the colleges 
in the United States are country colleges. Whether the 
country or the city is the best place for a college is one 
of those questions which educators are constantly dis- 
cussing. The arguments upon each side are not difficult 
to state. In behalf of the rural location, it is constantly 
said that the personal expenses of the student are in the 
country less than in the city. It is also argued that 
the country promotes freedom from certain moral temp- 
tations. The declaration is frequently made that the 
country gives larger freedom for certain social recreations 
and forms of amusement. It is constantly and worthily 
asserted that the association with nature through the 
country college is more intimate and precious. In be- 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 5 

half of the urban situation, it is argued that the student 
is able to come into association with the best life of 
humanity of every kind. The mightiest life of the 
nation pours into the city. Here the best preachers 
have their pulpits ; here the best lecturers bring them- 
selves and their messages ; here the best influences of 
art and of every form of noble enjoyment cluster; here 
the- association of man with man is more intimate and 
more formative of the best character. It is also said 
that the enjoyment of nature is more intense to one who 
spends a part of his energies and time amidst the works 
of man than to one who is remote from the most active 
human interests. The contrast between the works of 
God and the works of man flings man sharply into the 
profoundest appreciation of natural scenes. 

Between these two sets of arguments it is not neces- 
sary for me to be an arbiter, any further than to say 
that in my judgment, for the ordinary boy the college 
in the city, or the college on the borders of a city, is, on 
the whole, to be preferred. Probably the absolutely 
best location is that of a college in the suburbs of a 
great city. In such an environment the student is able 
to secure communion with nature and also association 
with great movements and with large life. But upon 
the choice of a rural or an urban college, the parent 
should not decide without a careful consideration of the 
needs of his child. In not a few instances it is well for 
one who has been born and bred in the city, and who 
will probably live his life in the city, to spend four years 
in a distinctly country environment. For him the coun- 
try college may be the best, in case he is willing to 
accept its conditions. But, on the other hand, for one 
who has been born and bred in the country, the life 
of the cit}^ itself is a very direct aid in giving him the 



6 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

best education. For a boy, country-born and country- 
bred, to go to a country college does not represent that 
change of scene and of influence which it is best for him 
usually to receive. 

SCHOLARSHIP. 

A second question which is worthy of most serious 
consideration relates to the scholarly character of- the 
college. The type of scholarship to which a college is 
devoted may be of either one or both of two sorts. It 
may be the scholarship of research, or it may be the 
scholarship of and for teaching. The scholarship of 
research is in many ways more important than the 
scholarship of teaching, but such scholarship belongs 
more properly to the university than to the ordinary 
college. It therefore does not fall directly within the 
circle of our present investigation. But in America 
these two kinds of scholarship are usually combined. 
The college that is distinguished for its scientific or 
linguistic research gains distinction as a worthy place 
for the teaching of youth. But the scholarship that is 
devoted to the service of teaching represents an element 
which is of far greater value to the parent in search of 
a college than the scholarship of research. It is pre- 
cisely at this point that American colleges differ from 
each other by diameters of incalculable length. It is 
also at this point that most parents are in peril of lacking 
evidence for making just decisions. The evidence that is 
usually presented to a parent seeking to know the schol- 
arly conditions of a college consists of the statements 
found in the official publications of the college, such as 
catalogues, or in the statements made by the students 
themselves. Such evidence is notoriously inadequate. 
There are catalogues that tell the truth, and nothing 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 7 

but the truth, and I am sure that most makers of cata- 
logues desire and design to tell the truth, the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth; but the authorities 
of some colleges allow themselves to be deceived in re- 
spect to the relative worth of the scholarly facilities 
which they are able to offer to students. The college 
mind is in peril of provincialism. So great is the work 
which any college accomplishes for its students, and so 
great is the work which each teacher accomplishes for 
his individual students, that both the college and its 
professors are inclined to believe that they are doing as 
much as any other college in the world can do for its 
men. Whereas the fact may be that the scholarly char- 
acter of one college is richer and higher and nobler than 
the scholarly character of another college by a degree 
as great as that which divides the last year in the gram- 
mar school from the last year in the high school. To 
illustrate the difference in the scholarly character of 
colleges let me set down side by side the courses of 
study in Harvard College in the academic year 1871-1872 
with the course of study in the same college twenty- 
five years after. At the earlier time the titles of the 
courses of study in the college occupied eight pages as 
printed in the catalogue for the following year. In the 
year 1896-1897 the titles of the courses of study occupied 
sixty pages. In the year 1871-1872 were offered two 
courses in political science, five courses in philosophy, 
and five courses in history. Twenty-five years after- 
ward were offered in political science, — including eco- 
nomics and government, — thirty courses ; in philosophy, 
twenty-six courses ; and in history, twenty-four courses. 
Although certain of these courses are designed primarily 
for graduates, yet this fact does not appreciably lessen 
the force of the comparison. The simple truth is that 



8 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE, 

scores of colleges, and good ones too, are not so rich 
to-day in scholarly resources as Harvard College was 
twenty-five years ago. The same difference that is 
made evident between the Harvard of 1871-1872 and 
the Harvard of 1896-1897 exists in colleges of each of 
our great States at the present time. ISTow, the point 
which I wish to make is that the college that is richest 
in scholarly resources is, other things being equal, the 
best college. But, of course, other things are not equal. 
In discussing the scholarship of a college the par- 
ent must be influenced somewhat by the consideration 
whether the courses of study are largely prescribed or 
largely or entirely elective. There can be no doubt that 
the general system described by the epithet ^' elective " 
is to become permanent. The extent to which it should 
be introduced, and therefore the extent to which its 
presence in the college should influence the parent, de- 
pends very largely upon the degree of knowledge and 
of maturity that the student possesses upon entering 
college. If he is mature, and if he has read as much of 
the ancient and the modern classics at the close of his 
course in the high school as many a college youth fifty 
years ago had read at the close of his sophomore year, 
it is well to grant to him a pretty free choice of electives 
in his college years. But if in the college it is neces- 
sary for him to devote his first year and possibly part 
of his second year to the doing of work that other 
college men have done in the high school, he should 
of course be limited to a prescribed course of study 
in the first semesters. Yet there can be no doubt that 
the colleges which do offer the largest range of elec- 
tive studies are the colleges that are richest in scholar- 
ship and scholastic resources; for without such wealth 
of resources they could not present a great variety and 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 9 

number of elective courses. For the elective system 
gathers up knowledge from all fields. It makes exten- 
sive forays into the fields of learning as it also makes 
expensive ones into the fields of finance. 

MEN BEFORE METHODS. 

It is not, however, the simple scholastic resources of 
the college which have value. The teacher that stands 
behind the teaching, — the man that was before the 
scholar and who helps to constitute the scholar, — is 
more important than the teaching or the scholarship. 
Therefore in judging of different colleges it is cer- 
tainly of extreme importance that one should know or 
know of the teachers. A college that is not rich in 
scholarly resources may yet have great teachers, — men 
great to make men. Williams College, for instance, was 
for many years a great power in the life of New Eng- 
land and of the whole nation, and of course it is now, 
and Williams College was not rich in scholarly resources, 
but Williams College made men largely through that 
prince of men, — Mark Hopkins. Graduate after grad- 
uate of Amherst College has testified that the best 
thing that Amherst College did for him was Julius H. 
Seelye. Likewise many a college, poor in purse, meagre 
in scholastic equipment, has given a most precious life 
to its graduates through the vitality of its teachers. As 
the student in college, in choosing his electives, selects 
not so much the subject as the teacher, so also the par- 
ent choosing a college for a son should be influenced 
quite as much by the teacher as by the scholarship of 
the college. 

The scholarly and personal character of a college has 
value in respect to the purpose which the parent may en- 
tertain for his son, I presume that most parents when 



10 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

they think of the future of a child, think of it in a very- 
general way : " I want him to be a good boy ; I want him 
to grow up to be a good man/' represents the most com- 
mon thought. But when a parent begins to be specific 
in his purposes he will probably find that he desires to 
have his son become either a scholar, or a thinker, or 
a worthy citizen, or a gentleman. These purposes help 
somewhat to determine the choice of a college. To make 
a scholar, the scholarly college is of pre-eminent value ; 
to make a thinker, the college whose faculty is composed 
of intellectual disciplinarians is of pre-eminent value ; to 
make a good citizen, the college whose faculty is com- 
posed of men of vitality in close touch with life is of 
pre-eminent value; to make a gentleman, the college 
whose faculty is composed of men who are noble gentle- 
men, living in an atmosphere of culture, is of pre-emi- 
nent value. 

RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES. 

To many persons the religious, or the moral and reli- 
gious, character of a college emerges more prominently 
than the scholarly character. I think it may frankly 
be said that most persons entertain a fear of the in- 
fluence of the college upon their sons. The fear arises 
possibly not so much from the character of the college 
as from the fact that the child is going away from his 
home into new and partially unknown surroundings. 
The fear would be none the less if he were going to 
New York into a banker's office on Wall Street than 
if he were going to New York to enter Columbia College 
at One Hundred and Twentieth Street. But also the 
fear may have some basis on the ground that certain 
people think the college is intrinsically and inherently 
bad ; that is, some parents believe that certain students 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 11 

in the college have a bad influence on each other. It 
was only yesterday that a mother said to me, " I was 
so fearful for my boy to come to college, for I was afraid 
of the bad boys." I replied to her, " We have no bad 
boys in college ; " and my remark was true in general. 
There are fewer bad boys in the American colleges than 
in any other gathering of American youth of similar 
size. The impression that thq college has many bad 
boys arises from the attention paid by the newspapers 
to the pranks which college boys perpetrate. College 
pranks, I know, are not signs of regenerating grace ; 
they are signs simply of a surplus of animal spirits. 
Stealing the tongue of the college bell, sending the 
Bible of the college chapel from Cambridge to Kew 
Haven, the hooking and the hiding of the gates of pro- 
fessors' houses, are not acts to be commended. They 
are acts to be condemned ; but they are not to be con- 
demned in the same way nor to the same degree that 
lying, or forgery, or drunkenness is to be condemned. 
In a word, the American college represents a moral en- 
vironment, a moral activity, and a moral atmosphere. It 
represents, too, an environment, activity, and atmosphere 
of a constantly increasing moral vigor and worth. Ver- 
dant greenness, moral foolishness, and ethical imbecility 
are there less frequently exhibited than they used to be. 
These defects and deficiencies never had that place in 
American college life which they played in the career 
of Mr. Verdant Green at the English university. The 
religious life also of the American college is far more 
pervasive and vital than it usually receives credit for. 
Not far from two-thirds of the students in the American 
colleges are members of Christian churches. The Chris- 
tian life of the college has changed in these last years. 
Revivals are far less common than they were. Few col- 



12 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

leges now take special means for the promotion of revi- 
vals, as many colleges used to do. Few colleges now 
suspend college work for the sake of holding revivals, 
as many colleges formerly suspended college work for 
days, if not for weeks together, for this purpose. But 
the absence of revivals does not prove that the Christian 
life of the students is less vital than two generations ago. 
On the contrary, the Christian life in the colleges is more 
vital, more natural, and more constant than in the former 
time. The endeavor is not at the present to make the 
college man religious, but the endeavor is to make a 
religious college man ; the endeavor is not to make the 
student Christian, but the endeavor is to make a Chris- 
tian student. 

There can be no doubt but that certain colleges do 
pay more conspicuous attention to the religious and 
moral character of their students than do others. But 
of all colleges it is the supreme concern. The words 
which the great Sir Walter spoke to his son-in-law as 
he lay dying, — " Lockhart, be a good man, be a good 
man," — illustrate what each college has for its highest 
purpose. It wishes to form the noblest character. 

Colleges differ by world-wide differences in respect 
to their method of securing the highest character. One 
college attempts to secure this result through a definite 
and comprehensive system of rules and regulations. It 
attempts to govern the conduct of the student each day, 
from the hour he gets out of bed in the morning till the 
hour of his getting into bed at night. It requires him 
to partake of his breakfast at a certain specified time, to 
be in his room and engaged in study between certain 
specified hours, as well as to be at recitations and lec- 
tures at certain times. It forbids him to leave town or 
to venture into certain districts. In a word, the college 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 13 

is an overseer, a guardian. Other colleges adopt a 
wholly different method. They adopt the method of 
the parent in reference to the youth of eighteen or 
twenty who is of ordinary maturity and of good habits. 
The college trusts the boy. It receives him as one 
who has come to college to get the benefits which col- 
lege can give. It accepts him at his best. It receives 
him as a gentleman. It requires his attendance at reci- 
tations. It holds him to a certain standard of scholastic 
attainment. It sets before him worthy examples in 
the person of its teachers. It asks him to make the 
most of every opportunity. Each of these two meth- 
ods has its advantages. Which is the better, I, for 
one, have no question. Each method may secure ex- 
cellent results. Under either method, too, the boy who 
is determined to be bad will be bad. But under both 
systems one can give to himself the advantage of believ- 
ing, as is said in the " Vicar of Wakefield '^ (chapter v.) 
that '^ Virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce 
worth the sentinel.'' 

THE DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGE. 

The religious character of a college is represented to 
most people in its denominational character. Christian- 
ity has usually as an organized force articulated itself 
into denominations. 

The great majority of the colleges in this country are 
denominational. It is sometimes asserted that a college 
cannot be Christian without being denominational. The 
remark is, however, not true. The value of the denom- 
inational college in the early stages of a community is 
great, but as the country develops its value rapidly 
diminishes. If one desire that his son shall be trained 
in certain denominational tenets, it may be worth while 



14 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

for him to send the son to a college of that denomination 
in the tenets of which he desires his son to be trained. 
But if he simply desire that his son shall embody and 
represent what is known as Christian manhood, the de- 
nominational relations of the college should have no 
value. The denominational character is more marked 
in certain colleges than in others even of the same 
denomination. Colleges, too, of those ecclesiastical 
faiths which are the more highly organized are more 
highly denominational than of those faiths which are 
more loosely organized. For instance, colleges of the 
Methodist or of the Presbyterian faith are more clearly 
Methodist or Presbyterian than colleges which are of 
the Congregational faith are Congregational. Yale, 
Amherst, and Williams are sometimes called Congre- 
gational colleges ; but the Congregational relations of 
these colleges are far less conspicuous than the Meth- 
odist relations of the many colleges which have the 
word Wesleyan prefixed as a part, or as constituting 
the whole, of their name. Por one, I venture to say 
that the denominational character of a college should 
have no or only small value with any one who is search- 
ing for a first-rate college. The chief, I may almost say 
the only, element to be considered in this general rela- 
tion is the element : " Is the college Christian ? Does 
the college through the person of its professors, through 
the instruction of its class-rooms, through its govern- 
ment, and through all its conditions and agencies, tend 
to promote the formation of that type of manhood 
which is embodied in the word Christian ? " And this 
type of manhood the best college does desire to promote, 
not for ecclesiastical or for any narrow reason, but be- 
cause the Christian type represents the highest, the 
fullest, and the largest type of manhood. - 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 15 



THE SMALL VS. THE LARGE COLLEGE. 

A fourth element in our question emerges. It relates 
to the size of the college. Arguments for small colleges 
and arguments for large colleges abound, and there are 
worthy arguments for each proposition. But in this, as 
in other elements, the choice is to be made not simply 
upon the intrinsic ground of the facts, but upon the 
ground of the relation of the facts to the boy who is 
going to college. The advantage of the college of many 
students is that that part of education which consists in 
the attrition or formative influence which students give 
to each other is greater. The men of a large college 
come from a greater variety of conditions, and represent 
larger and more diverse elements in character. They 
therefore rub against each other with more severity. 
The tendency to produce a more composite type of man- 
hood is stronger. The disadvantage of the college of 
many students is that the teacher is frequently obliged 
to instruct a larger number of students than he ought. 
Every college officer knows that the addition of each 
new student may impoverish the college. The fees paid 
for his tuition do not meet the cost of his tuition. 
Therefore as a college increases in the number of its 
students the tendency of the governing bodies is not to 
increase the teaching force in a corresponding ratio. 
The Harvard Graduates^ Magazine for December, 1896, 
notes as occurring in that college the consolidation of 
two sections in Spanish which made a section of over 
eighty men. This consolidation became necessary be- 
cause of illness ; but for many teachers a class of even 
forty students is altogether too large. I recognize, of 
course, that certain teachers can instruct and educate 
a section of eighty men better than others can one of 



16 TBE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

twenty. As a rule, a teacher should have no more men 
in a class than he, so to speak, can hold in his eye. On 
the whole, the larger colleges are allowing themselves to 
suffer and their students to suffer because of too big sec- 
tions. This result is not a necessary one ; for, if the col- 
lege should increase the number of its teaching force in 
the same proportion in which the number of its students 
increases, no evil would result. That the college ought 
so to do is evident ; but it is the fact that the ordinary 
college does not usually so do. It is also to be said that 
the advantage arising from the presence of a great num- 
ber of students is not so great as is usually supposed ; 
for every large college divides itself into cliques or sets 
of men, and every division may keep itself pretty closely 
to itself. I have, for instance, known a man in one 
of our largest colleges to say : " I find college life so 
lonely ! " The advantage of the small college is that 
the relatively few students and the relatively large 
number of teachers tend to promote intimacy of relation- 
ship between those who sit behind the teacher's desk 
and those who sit on the benches before it. This advan- 
tage is of very great worth. For, as I read the lives of 
the men trained in American colleges who have rendered 
great service to American life, I find them far more fre- 
quently attributing value to the influences of their 
teachers than to the teachings themselves. The disad- 
vantage of the small college, be it said, is provincialism. 
The choice between the large and the small college is 
therefore one that should be made with great delibera- 
tion, having special reference to the character of the boy 
to whom the education is to be given. 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 17 

THE COST OF A COLLEGE EDUCATION. 

Possibly the first question which a parent asks him- 
self is one as to the cost. Certain colleges to which he 
might be glad to send his boy he regards as closed 
because of the expense. In a general way the cost of a 
college education can be easily settled. Certain colleges 
exhibit in their catalogues four scales of annual expenses, 
denominating them, ^^ low," " moderate,'^ " liberal," and 
^'very liberal." The same conditions obtain within 
the college that obtain out of the college. I consider 
that for a boy of good habits, of high aims, appreciating 
properly the purchasing power of money, this is a fair 
method of estimating what he ought to spend in college : 
Add together the fee for tuition, the fee for room and 
for board, multiply the resulting sum by two, and you 
have what it is best for him to spend. It is wise for 
him to spend this sum to get the best out of the college, 
to live the most vital life in the college, to have the 
largest number of interests, to be the most useful, and 
to form a character that shall fit itself most exactly and 
fully into the conditions which he may be called upon 
to fill. Many a boy in college spends very much less 
than what is best for him to spend; he is obliged to 
spend very much less. Yet it is far better for him to 
come to college and to be economical, — economical even 
to the danger point of suffering and of decency, — than 
not to come at all. Not a few boys also come to college 
who spend very much more than twice the expense for 
the three fundamental elements of tuition, room, and 
board. The larger number of boys of lavish expendi- 
tures are gravely injured through these extravagances. 
Upon the basis which I have indicated, one can go to 
excellent colleges upon a sum not exceeding three hun- 



18 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

dred and fifty dollars, and receive the largest benefits. 
One can go to certain colleges and be obliged to spend at 
the very least three hundred and fifty dollars ; one can 
get a first-rate education at certain colleges, too, for as 
small a sum as two hundred ; but the basis I have indi- 
cated contains the essential elements for making a judg- 
ment. 

The question of cost has relation also to the aid 
which the college can give to the man of light purse and 
of heavy brain, and also to the opportunities for self-sup- 
port. Por every college has scholarships or aid funds, 
which are grants made for the use of good students. 
Every college also is able to offer to certain men means 
of self-support. At this point the advantage that the 
city college enjoys is greatly superior to that possessed 
by the country college. I know not a few students who 
through the grants made by the college in the shape of 
loans or gifts, or through certain work that the college 
puts into their hands, are meeting all their expenses. 
Be it said, too, that most men of this sort are men of 
large ability and the highest promise. In a word, it 
may be said that, however worth educating or needy 
of education the rich man may be, — and he is worth 
educating and he needs education, — it is of the utmost 
importance for the best interests of America that the 
poor boy of ability shall be educated. Many a college 
president stands ready to help the boy of strong body, 
of light purse, of pure heart, of good brain, and of high 
purposes to an education. A boy should never give 
up the hope of a college education on the ground of pov- 
erty. 

EASTERN COLLEGES AND WESTERN. 

There is another question frequently emerging which 
is worthy of discussion. The remark is often heard 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE, 19 

among families living in the central or remote West that 
their sons are going East to college. The belief is com- 
mon and strong that the colleges of the East are better 
than the colleges of the West. The primary differences 
prevailing between the colleges of the East and the 
colleges of the West are the differences that divide the 
older civilization from the younger. Possibly I may 
say that the differences between the Eastern and the 
Western colleges are not so great by any manner of 
means as are the differences between the older and the 
younger civilization. For education does not know lati- 
tude and longitude as do certain elements of civiliza- 
tion. Certain facts are clear. Few students go from 
the East to the West for an education ; not a few go 
from the West to the East. Although more than one- 
half of the students in almost every one of our Ameri- 
can colleges come from towns within the States in which 
those colleges are situated, and although in not a few in- 
stances the larger part of the students come from within 
a radius of seventy-five miles of the college, yet no small 
proportion of the students in the colleges of Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut, and 'New Jersey are drawn from west 
orf the Alleghany Mountains. Certain differences are 
evident enough. The colleges of the West are more 
inclined to emphasize the scientific and mathematical 
studies of the curriculum ; and the colleges of the East 
are more inclined to emphasize the linguistic and philo- 
sophical and historical studies. The colleges of the 
West have more students who are earning their way. 
The colleges of the East, on the whole, make the larger 
grants of scholarship and of other beneficiary funds. 
'But it is more fundamental to say that the colleges of 
the East have, on the whole, more great scholars than 
the colleges of the West. They also are better equipped 



20 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

in scholastic apparatus ; their libraries are larger and 
more adequate ; their means for scholarly investigation 
are richer. But also it is to be affirmed that the teach- 
ing of the undergraduate classes in the best colleges of 
the West is as good as the teaching of the undergradu- 
ate classes in the best colleges of the East. Because of 
the larger libraries and the more adequate scientific 
equipment, the facilities available in the colleges of the 
East for doing graduate work are superior to those 
afforded by the colleges of the West ; but for ordinary 
undergraduate work the best colleges of several of the 
Western States are as amply equipped as are the better 
colleges of the Atlantic seaboard. It is held by some 
that the colleges of the East tend to make the gentle- 
man more than the colleges of the West. Within a few 
days a man asked me : '^ Why do the men of the Eastern 
colleges seem so different from the men of the Western 
colleges ? '' The inquiry represents a superficial obser- 
vation. The inquirer was probably comparing the type 
of gentleman formed in the ordinary college of the West 
with the type of the gentleman formed in the best 
colleges of the older commonwealths. It is also to be 
said that the type of the gentleman who emerges from 
the college depends a good deal upon the type of gentle- 
man tnat comes into the college. But, given equal ad- 
vantages before one goes to college, the best colleges of 
several of the Western States are as well fitted to make a 
gentleman as are the better colleges of the older part of 
the country. 

SEX IN EDUCATION". 

What are the relative advantages for a man — and 
in this paper I am discussing the student who is a 
man — of the college which is open to women as well 
as to men, and of the college that is open to men only j 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 21 

this is a question that the ordinary parent considers with 
at least some degree of care. It is a question which he 
does consider with even greater care in reference to the 
education of his daughter. He debates whether it is 
best to send his daughter to a college where there are 
men or to a college where there are women only, but 
for his son it is usually a minor matter. The question 
of co-education has sometimes been regarded as a ques- 
tion involving the question of duty. The question of 
co-education is simply a question of expediency. That 
it is wise to give as rich opportunities to women as to 
men to secure the highest education is evident. The 
community ought, therefore, to give to women oppor- 
tunities for securing the highest education by the wisest, 
most efficient, and most economical means and methods. 
When a community is new and poor — and most new 
communities are poor — it may seem to be extravagant 
to found colleges for men only, and also for women only. 
Therefore colleges are founded for both men and women. 
But when a community becomes richer and larger, and 
many colleges are established, it is certainly open to 
argument that it may be wise to found colleges for 
women only and also colleges for men only. Therefore 
the question of co-education is not a question of duty, 
but a question only of expediency. It is often, too, a 
question of taste. That some men are advantaged by 
association with women in the same class-room is clear. 
That certain men are harmed from this association is 
also clear. That the association tends to increase the 
respect which certain men pay to women is, I believe, 
a fact of experience. That the association, too, tends to 
diminish the respect which certain other men pay to 
womanhood is also, I believe, a fact of observation. But 
there is one and only one important element in this con- 



22 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

dition to which I wish to allude : In the co-educational 
college and because of the co-educational feature, the 
life of the men is usually more subjected to rules and 
regulations than it is in the college for men only. (The 
same condition applies to women too.) 

COLLEGE EEQUIBEMENTS. 

In judging of the worth of a college, the element of 
the amount of work demanded and the severity of the 
tasks imposed upon the student have great value. 
It is said that certain colleges are hard to get into but 
easy to stay in, and that other colleges are easy to get 
into but hard to stay in. If one must choose between 
these two conditions, I am sure that the college which 
is easy to get into and hard to stay in is the better. 
The college ought to hold its students up to a very 
high standard of scholarship ; and that college is doing 
the most for the sons of any home which demands 
long-continued and severe intellectual labor. One peril 
besetting the college student is the peril of indolence. 
One of the best things that a college can do for a man 
is to aid him in forming the habit of hard work. That 
college, therefore, which makes it difficult for any man 
to stay in college who does not spend eight hours each 
day upon his mental tasks (including recitations), is 
rendering to that man a service of the utmost value. It 
is a service the worth of which he will appreciate more 
and more as he becomes a laborer in this great world 
of labor. Instead of being obliged to make a choice 
between the college to which entrance is difficult and 
abiding in easy, and the college to which entrance is 
easy and abiding in difficult, the choice should be so 
changed as to relate to the one college into which en- 
trance and in which abiding are both easy, and to the 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 23 

other college into which entrance and in "whicli abiding 
are difficult. The peril of American life is mediocrity. 
The college ought to do much in upholding the highest 
standards of admission and the highest standards of 
scholarship and of general excellence. 

THE DORMITORY SYSTEM AND COLLEGE COMMONS. 

A further inquiry, which relates to an important ele- 
ment of college life, is the question whether the student 
shall room in the college dormitory or in a private 
family. The American college is modelled more closely 
upon the English university college-system than upon 
any other educational foundation. Therefore the ordi- 
nary and older American college has dormitories. The 
newer American colleges have, in respect to the housing 
of their students, been more inclined to follow the 
German than the English method. Few State univer- 
sities have put up buildings for the housing of their 
students. It has sometimes been thought that the 
dormitory system was disappearing from the American 
college-life ; but recently the University of Pennsylvania 
has built large dormitories, and in connection with 
the new buildings of Columbia University houses for 
students may be erected. To many men the college 
dormitory represents an important element in college 
life. Not only is it a lingering element of the conven- 
tual system, but it also embodies a distinct experience. 
No small share of the good of a college course to the 
student is the intimacy of the friendships which it pro- 
motes. When men have their lodgings under one roof, 
and within one set of four walls, they come into those 
relations which tend to promote strong friendships. To 
study the same subjects, to eat at the same table, to 
sleep and to dream under the same conditions, to love 



24 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

and to hate the same things, represent means for caus- 
ing men to give inspiration and culture and education 
to each other. The disadvantage of dormitory life con- 
sists simply or largely in the tendency to break up habits 
of study. This result is a part of that wiping out of in- 
dividuality which happens when the character is not 
sufficiently strong to bear attrition or strain. A man 
living with other men finds that his time is less his own 
than when he lives alone. This difficulty it is, of course, 
possible to avoid or to overcome, but it is a difficulty. 
On the whole, however, I think it is best for a college 
man, at least for a while, to have that college experience 
known as " living in the dormitory." 

It is also well, I think, for a man to share with his 
fellows in the college commons. Colleges adopt different 
means and methods for the feeding of students. In 
certain instances the colleges take no means for pro- 
viding for the students ; students arrange through pri- 
vate boarding-houses or through clubs for themselves. 
But whatever interests the student interests the college ; 
and therefore the college is always eager for the stu- 
dents to have good board, under the best conditions. 
College men are usually poor ; and therefore the college, 
in its eagerness to help them, does whatever it can to 
secure good board at the cheapest prices. The best 
condition usually is that in which the men form a club 
on their own responsibility, but under general college 
supervision. Through such an arrangement they are 
able to have the advantage of each other's companion- 
ship. They are able, also, to secure food under collegi- 
iate conditions, and they are able to secure it at the 
cheapest price. The price, of course, varies. I am 
intimately acquainted with colleges at which simple but 
nutritious board is had at two dollars a week. From 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 25 

this sum the price rises to five or six or more dollars. 
The average price for board at all colleges does not 
exceed three dollars and a half a week. 

THE FRATERNITY QUESTION. 

Before the student is admitted to college, he probably 
has reflected upon the question of whether he shall join 
a fraternity. Certainly, if he has not been obliged to 
consider this question before he has received his matric- 
ulation papers, he will find himself obliged to consider 
it soon after he has begun work. The Greek Letter 
fraternities, as they have come to be known, represent 
a very large element in American college life. For 
more than fifty years they have played an important 
role. It is apparent that they are to be permanent fac- 
tors. Of them are more than fifty, which have chapters 
in many colleges. There are also local fraternities. The 
foundation of some of them runs back more than sixty 
years. Various purposes control and various methods 
prevail. In some the literary purpose and motive, in 
some the oratorical, in some the scholastic; but more 
generally and quite commonly the social and friendly 
method and purpose dominate. College fraternities are 
becoming, more and more, simple associations of men 
who like each other, and who wish to be associated with 
each other. Whether a student shall join one depends 
very largely upon the student, and also upon the frater- 
nity which he may be asked to join. On the whole, I 
feel confident that if he can afford the expense, — and 
the expense in some cases is slight, and in others heavy, 
— he will get more out of his college life by being a 
member. He will form more numerous, more ardent, 
and more lasting friendships. The disadvantage of fra- 
ternities is pretty closely related to what is called col- 



26 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

lege politics. College politics, on the whole, is quite 
as bad for the college as what is known as '^ politics " 
in the larger world of civil relations is bad for pure 
democratic government. For the bickerings and squab- 
blings prevailing in college politics consume large 
amounts of time and strength without rendering ade- 
quate results. But the same temptation of going into 
college politics exists for the man who is not a member 
of a fraternity. 

ATHLETICS. 

There is a further field of effort which the college 
man will be invited to enter. This field is represented 
by athletics. But, unlike the fraternities, one's entrance 
into this form of enjoyment is more individual than in 
the case of the societies. "Shall my son play foot- 
ball ? " is a question which the parent asks himself. 
Tor foot-ball represents the specific form of college ath- 
letics which emerges most conspicuously before the mind 
of the college boy and his parent. If the boy be of a 
strong body and in fairly good health, I should answer 
without hesitation "Yes." "To what extent shall he 
play foot-ball ? '' is another question and one more diffi- 
cult to answer. Never is it to be forgotten that the 
primary purpose of the college is to make the thinker, 
the scholar, the citizen, the gentleman. Never also is 
it to be forgotten that in securing these four purposes, 
the student is to possess a strong body. Man is so made 
that usually he cannot become the broadest and keenest 
thinker, or the largest scholar, or the most useful citi- 
zen, or the highest type of a gentleman, unless he have 
a strong body. In order to secure a strong body exer- 
cise is necessary. In order to secure the best kind of 
exercise, enjoyment of the exercise is necessary. In 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 27 

order to secure the enjoyment of exercise, the presence 
of others taking the same exercise is advantageous. All 
these various purposes and methods are best met, on the 
whole, by foot-ball. 

But of course foot-ball, or, indeed, any form of ath- 
letics, does not exist for itself. It is a means to an 
end, — a method for making the thinker, the scholar, 
the citizen, the gentleman. The peril is that the in- 
terest which attaches to foot-ball as a means may be- 
come attached to it as an end in itself. In this case 
it becomes an unworthy part of the college discipline 
and training. That certain men are injured for col- 
lege work by their indulgence in foot-ball is at once 
to be granted. That many men are very much bene- 
fited by playing foot-ball is also to be afl&rmed. The 
men who are benefited are of the sluggish type. They 
are the men who need to be taught to think and to act 
quickly. The men also who are benefited are of the 
individualistic type. They should be taught to work 
in co-operation and in harmony with their associates. 
The American college has put before itself a very im- 
portant and interesting problem, — to urge the men to 
participate in sports and in all forms of athletic amuse- 
ment without participating to an improper extent. 

By and for each college the question is to be settled 
on those grounds which it judges are best for its stu- 
dents to stand upon. That Yale or Princeton becomes 
more popular with the people by reason of a foot-ball 
victory, or that Harvard becomes less popular by a de- 
feat, is not -to be considered as an element of the ques- 
tion. It is a very open question how far parents are 
persuaded to send their children to colleges that win in 
foot-ball, base-ball, or boating by these athletic victories. 
Certainly some parents find reason for sending their 



28 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

sons to colleges that are not- victorious in these sports. 
But each college is to adopt such rules and regulations 
in sports as will cause its students to participate gene- 
rally in the sports, and to do all it can to cause no stu- 
dent to devote too large or too eager attention to any- 
sport. 

It is also to be said that the health of American col- 
lege men was never so good as it is to-day. The disease 
of dyspepsia — that bane of the student of forty years 
ago — is now uncommon. College men are more healthy 
on that day when they stand together on the commence- 
ment platform than on the day when the same men as 
freshmen gathered together for their first class-meeting. 
This increase in the vigor of the typical college man has 
been derived in no small degree from the presence of 
athletics in college life. 

In addition to the athletic sports, every well-equipped 
college has a gymnasium, in which in all seasons of the 
year, and especially in those seasons in which out-door 
sports cannot be indulged in, the student ought to be a 
constant and happy attendant. In certain colleges he is 
obliged to take exercise ; in other colleges exercise is 
a matter of his own volition. But four or five times a 
week, for at least half an hour each time, he ought to 
be found in the gymnasium. That student who works 
the hardest, and who hopes to make the most out of 
life, ought to be the most severe with himself in de- 
manding that he take constant and adequate exercise 
in the gymnasium. 

The student who thus exercises, and who sleeps eight 
hours each night, will have small reason to ask himself 
a question which he often asks himself, and which par- 
ents often ask for their sons ; to wit, " How much ought 
my son to study each day ? " The student of good con- 



TUB CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 29 

stitiition, who takes good care of himself, can usually 
work sixty hours a week. But few students do work 
this amount. Forty or fifty hours a week is much 
nearer the average. But for one who is eager and strong 
and ambitious, and who lives in simplicity, sixty hours 
a week, or ten hours a day for six days a week, should 
not be regarded as an exorbitant amount. But for men 
to exceed this amount, as certain men do, — although to 
exceed sixty hours a Aveek was formerly more common 
than it is now, — is to approach the danger line. 

STUDENT MIGRATIOiSrS. 

A question that the parent often asks is this : ^^ Is it 
well for my son to take his entire course at a single col- 
lege ? '^ From German university to German university, 
the German student migrates. In American colleges stu- 
dents seldom migrate. The man who enters a freshman 
graduates a senior. The lessening number of the men in 
a class is usually caused by men dropping out by reason 
of lack of scholarship, of sickness, or poverty, or of going 
into business. I am inclined to think that the American 
custom is wise : it is usually well to take the entire 
course at one college. The man who enters a class 
after the first year, enters at a disadvantage for the 
forming of intimate friendships. He never feels him- 
self as being quite a full-fledged member of the colle- 
giate family. To be sure he ca7i change colleges. Most 
colleges accept students from other colleges upon the 
presentation of clean papers, indicating that they are 
honorably dismissed, and also indicating the amount and 
quality of the work that has been done. It would, of 
course, be difficult for a man from a third-rate college 
to secure admission to Princeton, or to any other first- 
rate college. It is also to be said that Harvard usu^ 



30 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

ally requires men coming from whatsoever college, either 
to stand examinations for admission to a certain class or 
to fall back at least one year. To change from one col- 
lege of a certain grade to another college of the same 
grade is easy; but it is not usually wise. 

SPECIALIZATION IN COLLEGE. 

The student before he enters college, or his parent in 
his behalf, frequently inquires ^^How early should a 
specialty be developed ? " The likeness of men to each 
other in college is one of the significant elements. On 
the whole, men seem a good deal like each other in their 
taste for different studies. Of course, there are certain 
ones who abhor mathematics, and also certain ones who 
are fond of mathematics. Certain ones excel in linguis- 
tic studies, and others there are who find the languages 
difficult. But there does come a time when a man should 
begin to develop a special relation to his probable work 
in life. It is fortunate, indeed, that the studies which 
fit for one of the two or three more common callings, 
fit for the others also. The same preliminary study 
that fits one for the law, fits one also for the ministry, 
and also for journalism, with a few slight qualifica- 
tions and exceptions. If a student propose to be a 
lawyer he should devote a large part of his college 
time to the study of philosophy, constitutional law, po- 
litical science, and history ; if a student propose to be a 
minister, he should devote his study to the same subjects 
and in almost the same proportion ; if one propose to be 
a journalist, it would be difficult for him to lay out for 
himself a better course of study in the last two years 
of his course than is embodied in these same sub- 
jects, though he should emphasize history and social 
science. Furthermore, if one is to enter into business, 



THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 31 

he will find the study of history, of economics, and of 
philosophy the best subjects to occupy himself with. 
If, however, one is to be a doctor, he should devote him- 
self to physics, chemistry, and biology in the last two 
years. But it is a satisfaction to know that men who 
propose to be doctors usually indicate a preference for 
this most specialized profession as early as the middle 
of the coiu'se, and are able therefore with foreknowledge 
to specialize their work. Therefore, if a student show 
as early as the beginning of the junior year what his 
conspicuous ability may be or what may be his par- 
ticular liking, the time is sufficiently early. If one 
have no liking at all, and no preference for one study 
above another, the method which Maria Mitchell adopted, 
with reference to the students of Vassar College, is as good 
as any. She reports herself as saying to her students : 
" When a student asks me ' What specialty shall I fol- 
low ? ' I answer, ' Adopt some one, if none draws you, 
and wait.^ I am confident that she will find the specialty 
engrossing." 

After this long discussion of well-nigh a score of the 
questions which a parent considers in choosing a col- 
lege, I have only one more inquiry to propose : " What 
will my son be good for when he graduates ? " The an- 
swer, father and mother, depends altogether upon j^our 
son. He may be good for anything ; he may be good 
— but seldom does it occur — for nothing. He proba- 
bly will be good for something. The college, if it has 
done its full duty to him, has not fitted him for his 
profession ; it has not fitted him for the ministry : it 
has only fitted him to fit himself for the ministry. It 
has not fitted him to practise law : it has fitted him to 
begin the study of law. It has not fitted him to be 
a physician : it has fitted him to prepare himself to be a 



32 THE CHOICE OF A COLLEGE. 

doctor. It has even not fitted him to be a college 
teacher, as the old college did j but it has fitted him to 
take graduate work for two or three years, in order to 
become a college teacher. But what is more important 
than any of these special works that the college has 
done, if the college has done its duty to him, and if he 
has done his duty to the college and to himself, your 
son is a gentleman. He is also a thinker. He is also 
a noble citizen. He is also more or less of a scholar. 
But, supplementing all these elements and mightier 
than any one of them, the boy who has gone to college a 
boy and has come out of college a man, is fitted for life. 
For the college is a professional school for life itself. 
Possibly one would prefer to say, college is life. 



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